Forests have the ability to stir a wide range of emotions in humans. And it has not gone unnoticed by story-tellers.

From an early age, children are familiarised with the narrative device of the "deep, dark wood". From the Brothers Grimm's 19th-century fairytales, such as Hansel and Gretel and Little Red Riding Hood, through to modern-day children's classics The Gruffalo and Harry Potter, forests are places where hidden dangers and horrifying creatures lurk in the darkness.

"The forest is often used as a source of threat in our culture," says Peter Hutchings, professor of film studies at Northumbria University, who specialises in the horror genre. "It represents an older, pre-modern world that we have pushed aside, but which will now come back to endanger our protagonist. In gothic horror, the forest is where primitive people and animals live. In fairytales, the forest can be both a magical realm as well as a place of danger. We see this in Snow White, for example."

Horror films, in particular, have exploited forests for dramatic impact, says Hutchings. "In The Blair Witch Project, for example, the forest is used to excellent effect. It's a landscape of increasing disorientation where modern gadgets such as mobile phones fail to work. It's also a place that forces you to experience the full darkness of the night." In Sam Raimi's 1981 cult classic The Evil Dead, a demon spirit possesses the trees in a forest and uses a branch to rape one of the female characters holidaying in a (now a horror cliche) isolated log cabin – a scene that led the film to be classified as one of the first-ever "video nasties" in the UK.

But forests are also used as a leveller or sanctuary for our heroes. Robin Hood is only able to operate with the cover of Sherwood Forest. And in First Blood, John Rambo flees to the forest in an attempt to hide from corrupt cops.